Superman: World Hero or Feared Other?

Abstract

This project focuses on the character Superman, examining the modern portrayals of his character and the differences with how these separate versions of the character are portrayed. This project reads Superman as an immigrant, emphasizing his alien heritage as the “outsider,” the racial “other,” to the dominant Earth culture. Superman was originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who both were children of Jewish refugees who fled to America to escape anti-Semitic movements in Europe. While the Jewish traces of the character are more subtle, Siegel and Shuster would have been influenced by needing to appeal to ideas of whiteness and Christianity to assure their character was well received. In my project I examined Grant Morrison’s comic All-Star Superman as a basis for a modern portrayal of Superman where he is a force for good, while his portrayal in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Trilogy and the Superman-inspired character Homelander from The Boys have a Superman character that either is, or eventually turns into a force for evil. When Superman is a force for good, like he is in All-Star Superman, his personhood and immigrant roots are emphasized, as the story explores how Superman lives his life among humanity as Clark Kent and shows the appreciation and care he has formed for his adopted homeworld. In these tellings it is his immigrant roots-his Kryptonian powers–that enable him to protect humanity, making his alien origin a positive for his heroism. However, when Superman is a force for evil, as he is in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Trilogy, his immigrant roots are again emphasized, but under a xenophobic lens. In stories like these, Superman’s immigrant status functions as a reason not to trust Superman, pushing the idea that an outsider who was powerful enough to change the world, would either be too malicious or simply too different from us to change the world for our betterment. Examining the Superman-parody character Homelander from The Boys practically shows the late-term effect of Superman’s villainous characterization justifying extralegal militaristic response, as the character Homelander ends up utilizing his great powers to embody himself as a patriotic soldier for Christian nationalism, in order to alleviate being casted under suspicion himself for being the “untrustworthy other.”